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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

A panel of 1987 Kraft Macaroni and Cheese (Kraft Dinner for the Canuckleheads out there) cards featuring Eddie Murray and Dale Murphy. Mix the two up and you have Dale Murray and Eddie Murphy which would be almost as awesome as this panel. I ate about three tons of Mac & Cheese in 1987 chasing after these cards. My grandmother questioned me "Do you really like this stuff or do you just want the cards?". I assured her I luuuuurved Mac & Cheese and then didn't eat a bite of it for about 3 years after the cards stopped being printed on the box. Incidentally, I ate about 392 Domino's Pizzas in 1991. The 16 Dan McGwire cards was totally worth it. I have a pile of these panels lying around somewhere that I ripped off those old boxes in 1987. But not one of them had this:

THE FRONT OF THE BOX

I haven't seen the front of this box for a couple of decades. It seems kind of plain today but this was cutting edge graphic design back then. The FREE is as big as the Kraft logo! A couple of interesting things (to me at least) on the box:

The cooking directions on the old box fascinate me. They specifically say to add 1/4 cup Parkay Margarine. I have a box of 2009 vintage Mac & Cheese here and Kraft no longer requires Parkay (butter!) for their dinners. The 2009 version is also heavily illustrated with fun cartoons instead of the wall of text. The other big difference in the preparation instructions is the including of microwave directions for cooking the macaroni. Microwaves were a big deal back then, I remember my grandparents treating theirs like a mini fusion reactor. Don't stand in front of it! You'll get the Cancer! Nowadays if you want to cook Mac & Cheese in the microwave you get Easy Mac. There's even microwave reheating instructions on there. Add milk, cover with plastic wrap, microwave on medium, who does all that? Modern instructions: 1) take out of fridge 2) throw in microwave 3) press a button 4) eat 5) steps 2 and 3 are optional. The newfangled box has no microwave instructions but they do have directions for a light preparation to cut down on the salt and fat. Basically, use unsalted butter and skim milk. There's a nutrition comparison underneath the light preparation which brings us to...

The nutrition information on the old and new boxes are also mind blowing. First of all, this stuff is absolutely dreadful for you. Lots of fat and TONS of sodium. I didn't worry about that crap in1987. The serving size also jumped a bit over 20 years from 3/4ths of a cup on the old box to one cup on the new. I'm not sure why they did that because it makes the calories and the sodium and the fat look worse. It does bump up the fiber and the calcium percentages, although Vitamin A and Iron stay the same somehow. I have the whole wheat version of Mac & Cheese so there might be something different in the formula that accounts for that. The information on the side has also changed a lot in twenty years . Out: Thiamine, Riboflavin and Niacin. In: Calories from fat, Saturated Fat, Trans Fat, Dietary Fiber and Sugars. The ingredients list is odd in that over the years the macaroni ingredients got way more complicated while the cheese sauce mix got less complicated. It probably all has to do with obscure government labeling regulations, but the parentheses inside brackets inside parentheses in the ingredient list of the '87 era cheese mix amuses me. One thing hasn't changed though: both boxes has "The Cheesiest" on there somewhere.

Oh wait this blog is about baseball cards isn't it... Eddie Murray is one of the best switch hitters of all time along with Mickey and Chipper and has the sideburns to back it up. Dale Murphy will be elected to the Hall of Fame in about 15 years by the Veteran's Committee once they flood the hall with '70s and '80s stars as a backlash against all the inflated numbers of the past 15 years (in Murph's hall class: Steve Garvey, Bobby Grich and Rick Cerone). Both Dale and Eddie look very sad that their team logos were airbrushed off their respective headgear. Thanks to Duane who added this bit of history in a big trade for some Allen & Ginter cards.

Josh Anderson got traded to the Tigers yesterday. I'm a little bummed about this since I thought Josh should have been given an opportunity to be the starting center fielder last year instead of trading Devine for Kotsay. Josh played very well in a late season call up and was solid in spring training, but Jordan Schafer was on fire all spring and won the job. Josh is out of options and another Anderson is taking his spot on the roster, so he had to be moved. I guess it's the beginning of the Schafer era in the ATL. I'd feel a lot better about it if he hadn't gotten suspended for 50 games last year for apparently hanging out with the wrong crowd. Now thanks to the bullshit steroid policy in the MLB, the Braves can lose the "next Grady Sizemore" for half a season the next time he eats a poppyseed muffin and pees a false positive.

This actually isn't too bad a trade for us though. We're getting sidearm pitcher Rudy Darrow from the Tigers in exchange for Josh. He'll play in Double-A this year, but a strong young arm is a strong young arm. He was being compared to Peter Moylan in the MLBTradeRumors.com thread. I have no problem with ultimately converting Oscar Villareal into a young Peter Moylan. I'll still miss Josh though, he should have gotten a better shot to prove himself last year.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

I had a pretty productive week last week so on Friday I treated myself to a pack of '09 Topps American Heritage. I did pretty well for myself even though I only needed two cards out of the pack. Here are the doubles in the pack:

5 Nathaniel Hawthorne and his amazing mustache

60 Elizabeth Jennings Graham and her weirdly grainy picture

73 Robert Kennedy and his bullhorn

113 Completeion of the First Transcontinental Railroad

29 Nathaniel Greene who retreated to victory

42 Orville and Wilbur Wright and their flying contraption

58 W.E.B. Du Bois and his exquisite Van Dyke mustache

Not a bad pack even though I have them all already. This is the coolness:

This is one of the American Legends insert cards that drops at 1:200 packs. The Legends (and the even more hard to get American Icons) were where Topps snuck in their exclusive baseball player cards into the American Heritage set. With the long odds I didn't count on pulling one, but it appears I got lucky. This pack was errantly put in the $1.59 cheapo bin for some reason which is where I found it.

The card is pretty nice looking, a sepia photo with dark brown borders. You can actually see the serial number due to fortunate placement on a white background on this card. Double X doesn't have a logo on his cap. I'm not sure if it was like that on the original photo or was photochopped out. Cool card of a great player though. I love finding Hall of Fame players in current products. Here's the other card I was happy to see in the pack:

Checklist one of three. Now I've finally got all the checklists. Don't laugh, these things are almost impossible to find when you need them!

A few weeks back The Nennth Inning had a "trade me Lincecum cards for hits" blowout contest/special/thingy. I snagged a Saltalamaccia autograph for a few Lincecum cards and was quite happy about it. After the contest was over there were some cards left over and I traded a couple more Tim Lincecum cards for what was left. I got three cards in the mail. These two and a third which I'll try to get on Auto-Matic tonight. I need to post on there at least once a month, right?

2007 Sweet Spot Albert Pujols Sweet Swatch

I'm not sure how Albert Pujols didn't get claimed, but I'm happy about it. This is one of the better looking jersey swatch designs I've seen. Good sized picture, the wood paneling and the silver stripe work well together and the swatch fits in the design. I can see why some people like the '07 Sweet Spot set, the hits are all pretty attractive.

2007 Ultimate Collection Matt Cain Ultimate Star Materials

This is the first of these I've seen as well. 2007 Ultimate is like a $200 a pack product right? And they have plain Matt Cain jerseys in them? The design isn't all that great. Way too much useless space on the bottom left corner. Do we really nead a quarter of the card to let people know that Matt is a pitcher? I've seen worse, but at something like $65 a card if you bought a pack this would drive me nuts. I like Matt Cain though and I'm waiting for him to win that Cy Young I know his arm has in it. For everyone out there who doesn't understand my bad attitude toward super high end stuff, here's exhibit A. If I pulled this card out of a pack of Ultra or Upper Deck or something I'd be happy about it. But in something that costs this much, sorry I'll just give that money to Bernie Madoff to invest instead.

I've been getting some e-mails about trading recently, and I'll admit I'm not overly attatched to either of these cards (I have a couple other Pujols jerseys I like better). However, I've got a large backlog of trade stuff I need to send out though so if you do make any offers do two things: Make sure "TRADE" is in the e-mail somewhere and be prepared to wait at least a week for a response. I'm starting to get back on track but trading is honestly very low on the priority list at the moment. Thanks, and thanks again Bailey!

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Here's pack 5 of 5 that I was able to get from the local shop. This will be the last hobby pack for a while, but I do have some retail ones to show off. No short prints or inserts in this one, but it was still pretty good nonetheless.

2 Nyjer Morgan

The back of the card says that Nyjer was a junior hockey star in Canada. I bet he wishes he played for the Penguins instead of the Pirates. His stats (and the photo, kinda) make him look like a baby Juan Pierre. Maybe he can break out for the Buccos this year. Lord knows they need someone, ANYONE, to break out.

65 Ivan Rodriguez

Pudge doesn't look right in a Yankees uni. I'm glad he's with the 'Stros now. My first little league team was the Astros, and I've liked them ever since. The relationship was a little strained after that 18 inning playoff game, but I'm over it.

Verily, Pudge is the Star Child, poised to usher in the Age of Aquarius. Either that or he got a Lisa Simpson haircut.

61 Jorge De La Rosa

I pulled a truckload of his rookie cards in 2001 or 2002 or whenever they all came out. I think I have three Diamond King rookies and they were short printed. Now he's a Rockie, poor sap.

34 Ian Kinsler

Ian Kinsler is the new Chase Utley. Could you imagine how good the Rangers would be if they just found average pitching?? Good grief, they'd will 130 games.

210 Ryan Zimmerman

Can someone explain to me why Invader Zim is a superstar? Fine, he's only 23, but he's not that good yet. His OPS+ last year was 101 for Pete's sake. Granted, that's like Babe Ruth for the lousy Nationals but it's still not worth the amount of hype he's gotten. In five years he might be the best third baseman evar, but right now he isn't even the best in his division. What I'm saying is, can we please not have another Allen & Ginter N43 insert of Zimmerman?? He's had an N43 in EVERY set so far. Chipper Jones? Bupkis. TOPPS IF YOU'RE LISTENING CHIPPER BETTER HAVE AN N43 THIS YEAR AND NOT ZIMMERMAN. There will be dire consequences if I see one more Zimmerman N43 in the '09 set.

245 Carlos Guillen

Carlos just flat out plays, doesn't he. And he's always happy and smilin' on his cards. That counts for a lot.

169 Joe Nathan

I still can't believe that A.J. Pierzynski trade. Nathan might be out of the closer danger zone now. It seems that if a closer can manage to get past that 3rd or 4th season without their arm falling off, or completely forgetting how to pitch or getting abducted by aliens or something they can hang on and become one of the Elite. Joe's on year 6 as the Twins' closer and looks as strong as ever.

107 Jo-Jo Reyes

This is my third Brave out of a Heritage pack. I pulled three out of the five packs, not too shabby. Jo-Jo's been looking good in spring training, although he's likely headed to Triple-A Gwinnett. After the pitching meltdown last year, I'm happy to see lots of depth in the rotation. Now if we could only find a lefty reliever that doesn't come with his own can of gasoline. Maybe Jo-Jo could have the bullpen mojo?

I'm not happy with the cartoon on the back. I don't want to hear about "my arm could get sore" from one of our pitchers after 4/5ths of the rotation broke down last year. You better not have jinxed us Topps!

I usually get disappointed by Heritage packs that don't have an SP or insert in them. This one wasn't too bad as I got a Brave, plus Kinsler, Pudge and Zim. Not too shabby. I'm done with the hobby packs (but maybe not for long...) but I have a few retail packs to show off soon. And yes, I am posting EVERY single Heritage pack I buy. At least until I am finally able to pick up a box that is. Next up is a Jumbo pack of Heritage that was a little... odd. I'm not happy about it, but my luck later changed so it's not too bad. Adios till next time...

Friday, March 27, 2009

Mario at Wax Heaven sent a few cards my way to cheer me up and it worked. Like Mark at Stats on the Back, he sent the cards in little mini packs of three or four inside penny sleeves. Since it's a quick, easy and cool post, here's the first of three packs from Mario.

(note: I hit post accidentally so this has now become a live blog complete with embarrassing typos)

2009 Topps Attax Chipper Jones Code Card

Mario posted this card on his blog as part of his Attax review so the code has probably been used ages ago by now. I haven't taken the time to check out ToppsTown yet so I'm not really concerned. I'm going to to a review of Attax sooner or later so I'll leave the complaining about the back of the card for then. The front isn't bad as far as game cards go. If you're wondering about the numbers at the bottom, basically the gameplay is a game of War between the batter and pitcher. APBA it ain't. Chipper is somewhat unstoppable compared to some of the pitcher cards I've seen. Foil versions are even better statwise, so a Gold Chipper is probably one of the best in the set.

2009 Spectrum Chipper Jones

I don't like Spectrum and its $7.50 pack price or Kim Karwhositsface autographs. I do however like the shiny purple holofoil with what appears to be lasers zapping all over the place. The lasers appear to have zorched off Chipper's feet.

The backs look pretty good too, even if it does remind me a bit of UDX. Come to think of it, EVERYTHING Upper Deck has done recently reminds me of UDX. The lasers look more like those spotlights that they use in movie premiers and used car dealerships on the back. That's appropriate considering the set relies on Hollywood autographs extensively and the set is a bit of a lemon. I'll say it right now, though, THIS card looks mighty nice, even though most everyone (including me) likes to bash on the set. It's still probably going to be the only '09 Spectrum card ever featured on the blog though, so get a good look at it.

2009 Topps Heritage Greg Maddux

I wish MLB copied the NFL practice of signing players to one day contacts so they could retire with their long time team. I'm still going to hold out hope that he gets itchy and signs with some team midseason. Actually I'm really hoping he pulls a one game comeback with the Braves like Phil Niekro did in '87. Man, I love this set. I don't think orange, yellow, black and red with a blue uniform is really supposed to work together as far as color matching goes, but it looks good to me on this card.

The cartoon is hilarious. I can see Greg chugging away with his tongue hanging out as he steals that record breaking base. Check out that career stat line. Five THOUSAND innings pitched. Wow. The 2008 stat line is a little disappointing, but it's still not bad for someone who had the Padres' offensive offense backing him up. My favorite stat on the card? 355. One more than a certain juicy fruit fireballer from Texas.

Awesome stuff from Mario and there's still 6 more cards to show off. I tried to find some Cansecos to send him, but it's hard to find something The Completist doesn't have. I'll keep looking though, it's like a Holy Quest for the Oddball Jose. Thanks again Mario!

Thursday, March 26, 2009

The extra day was worth it as I got one more post in under the wire. It's time to post the results of the fifth Blog Bat Around so the night owls can read tonight and the cube dwellers have something to get them through their Friday. Great stuff all around, so get a-readin'!

Check out the Yaz entry (current page for comparison) on the beta site. More stats, more gadgets, easier to read, you can choose a range of years and get totals for just those years, game logs are easy to access and you can convert the data into comma delimited or straight text form to cut and paste into a spreadsheet or database. Really great new stuff here from the best stats site on the interwebs.

Update: Just in case anyone out there hasn't seen it before, BaseballReference.com has a really cool wiki portion of the site called BR Bullpen. Be careful, you could kill a lot of time in that site.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Today has been an unending procession of annoyances, bad news and near disasters. I'm taking tonight off and will post the Blog Bat Around tomorrow when I can focus on it. So all you slackers out there have just a little more time to send in submissions.

Replacing our regularly scheduled programming, is a four-pack of cards that was recently sent in a package from Mark at Stats on the Back. Mark wanted to get rid of some old basketball cards and I begged shamelessly for them. There were other packs in the package, I might show those off soon too. This one is a four cards inserted inside a penny sleeve.

1974-75 Topps basketball Buffalo Braves team

Didn't know there was a basketball team named the Braves, did you? Pop quiz for eternal pride: What current NBA team did this one eventually become? I love the logo. Very '80s, almost a complete rip off of the Atlanta Braves' logo of the time. The leaders in '73-74 for Buffalo are Hall of Famer Bob McAdoo and fan favorite Ernie DiGregorio.

McAdoo won the Rookie of the Year in '72-73 and an MVP award for the Braves. He was a prolific scorer who was dangerous on the perimeter as well as the paint. Ernie D also won the Rookie of the Year award the year after McAdoo, but never quite matched his rookie season. There's not much to see on the back of this card as the Braves only existed from 1970-1978.

1987 Fleer Star Stickers Bob Horner

Is this really a sticker? It's kind of thick and the edges are a little strange. Wait, no, it's a

Box Bottom Card

The only way this card could make me happier is if I got to cut it off the box myself. Check out the scouting report. You best not throw a breaking ball high and inside to Horner!

1980sish Dover Reprint 1933 Goudey Tom Zachary

Do kids still get these Dover reprint books today? I think I got them from Scholastic when I was a kid and immediately tore out all the cards from their perforations. Then I bought 'em all again at the gift shop when I went to the Hall of Fame. You can still find them on Amazon, but do kids still buy them and separate all those pristine perforations? I sure hope so.

See, "A DOVER REPRINT" The best kind of reprint.

1992 U.S. Playing Cards Tom Glavine Joker

Here's Tom in the penny sleeve that all four cards came in. I guess if the pack of four is 40 cents each, that means that they are worth a dime a pop. Or maybe it's a package deal. Save ten cents by buying in bulk. Pop quiz #2:Glavine is a Joker becausea) he won the Cy Young award in 1991b) huge Steve Miller fanc) that whole Mets thing was an elaborate Andy Kaufmannesque joked) he's the arch enemy of Batman

Here's the back. Why didn't I put the price tag on this side? Because I wasn't originally going to scan the fronts and backs of all the cards. Cool stuff Mark, danke schön!

Scott at Hand Collated sent me a few of the Target 'retro style' cards from their #12 blasters (remember to check the bar code, kids!) in that package with the Mayo Chipper Jones. I haven't gotten a blaster so this is the first I've seen of them. Take a gander at Brian McCann:

As you can see from the very dark logo and nigh-invisible name at the bottom, that Topps kept the foil on the retro cards for some reason. I'm not entirely sure what foil has to do with retro card (unless you're talking about 1965 Topps embossed inserts) but you have to have foil nowadays for some reason. The front of the card is quite slick and glossy. They remind me a bit of the 2001-2002 Topps Archive sets, although those were so glossy they were practically varnished. These are definitely glossy though, but more like the All-Star rack pack inserts of the '80s.

I was more surprised at the backs to be honest. When I first heard about the retro styles I thought they might be printed on really retro stock. Like 1991 Topps dark cardboard stock with the big curve in the card from coming off the roll of cardboard that Topps got leftover from a cereal box manufacturer. Of course that would never fly in today's market, so I shouldn't be disappointed. I can hear the Target executive now: "Wal-Mart got neon cosmic bowling cards and we got... leftover crap??" Nah. you won't get '80s cardstock in an '00s product ever again (well, usually). This stuff is a lot sturdier, you can see three layers of cardboard sandwiched in there. Two white sheets on the outside and a layer of brown cardboard inside. As a result, these are some sturdy card, thicker than this year's Heritage. As much as I wanted to see that old brown cardboard ont he back, with this design it would have been a very bad idea. There's way too much tiny text on these backs, on a brown background they would be almost unreadable. The slightly off-white gives a bright enough background to read the card while maintaning the retro feel.

Overall I think it's a neat idea for Topps. the Wal-Mart black borders are really cool looking but these will probably appeal to collectors looking for a more solid version of the Topps set. The base set cardstock does seem a little flimsy, these cards have some heft to them. Here are the others Scott included in the package:

Casey Kotchman

Omar Infante

James Parr

Good stuff and nowI can say I've seen the target Retro cards. Thanks again Scott!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

But I'll still take Blog Bat Around posts. What can I say, I'm pretty easy going about that kind of stuff. I could post the actual article at any time in the next 24 hours so don't wait too long. For all you good, responsible bloggers out there who have already done your post, here is a completely random card:

I'm not sure who gave this card to me or why it was in my images folder. Or why my descreening wasn't on so I got the funky pattern in the scan. But it's on the blog now at any rate. Enjoy! (and get writing you slackers*)

* Note: I have not actually written my own post for the Blog Bat Around that I'm hosting and even thought up the question myself yet

Note - 5th Blog Bat Around posts due tonight! Send them to me by midnight and you're on the post with a short summary. After midnight, I'll put 'em on the post, but no guarantee of a summary. Get 'em to me after the post is up and I'll try to add it on it on after the fact. Basically If you're late, I'll get it on the post, but I might not actually read it. I know, you're heartbroken. Get 'em in folks!

PunkRockPaint was able to convince me to join his Baseball Bloggers Fantasy League, and the draft is tonight. I am woefully unprepared and will end up basically drafting my team by randomly picking cards out of my stars box. Don't be surprised if you see Corey Koskie, Curt Schilling and Oil Can Boyd in my starting lineup. The Punkster offered to create some custom uniforms for everyone in the league but that was not necessary in my case.

Monday, March 23, 2009

I finally scrounged around and figured out the checklists for the retail-only Mayo Cut Plug inserts in this year's Heritage. They may have been posted already or might not. I'm posting them here anyway for reference. There are 20 cards in the set, 10 are inserted into Target packs and 10 more are found in Wal-Mart packs. I heard a rumor that they could only be found in jumbo packs, but I've seen one come out of a normal retail Target pack. I haven't seen any loose Wal-Mart packs other than a Jumbo and I don't know if they can be found in blasters or not (Update: looks like they aren't in blasters from the comments). Target packs list a "Target Continuity Card 1:4" in the odds on the back, Wal-Mart does not list any odds. The cards look pretty much exactly like the football version of the set, except the photos are in black & white. Thanks to Scott at Hand Collated for sending me this Chipper to examine.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

One more Hobby pack after this and then you'll get to see the Wal-Mart jumbo pack. I bet you just can't wait...

45 Jeff Keppinger

Red, black and white! On a Cincinnati Reds card! Awesome!!! Plus Jeff played for the University of Georgia! WOOFWOOFWOOFWOOFWOOF! Topps should have used this color scheme for every single Reds card in the set.

147 Aaron Cunningham

The first of three straight Rookies. At only 22, Aaron is a pretty good hitting prospect, and will probably see some action with the A's sometime this season.

123 Will Venable

Max's kid is another outfield prospect trying to break into a crowded outfield.

C17 Dexter Fowler

My first Heritage Chrome of '09. I love these cards even though I'd never take the time to build a set. Come to think of it, a Chrome set would probably be a whole lot easier than a complete base set with short prints. Dexter's probably the best prospect of the three in the pack. He played on the Olympic team last year for the USA, so there's likely a bunch of Upper deck cards of him floating around.

Here's the back of a Chrome card. The ink seems a little darker than the base cards to me. More of a deli mustard than a dijon. The serial number is in the top right corner of the cartoon which kind of stinks. I don't like the sancticty of my cartoons defiled by foil.

155 Jeff Kent

Jeff Kent is going to the Hall of Fame while Dale Murphy, Jim Kaat and Ron Santo sit out in the cold. Sigh.

67 Omar Vizquel

Omar will be playing for Texas this year as Elvis Andrus' personal shortstop guru. I'd rather see Omar in the Hall than Kent.

2657 hits, umpteen Gold Gloves, more games played at shortstop than anyone else, not a jerk and did it all while wearing a jughead hat. BEAT THAT JEFF KENT.

327 Kyle Lohse

Kyle Lohse plays for the Cardinals? Kyle Lohse is still in the league? Kyle Lohse went 15-6 last year?? Naaaah. Some sort of pod person must have won 15 games last year. Some alien race determined to destroy all humans through Cardinal baseball. He'll evolve into SuperMechaLohse during a game against the Cubs sometime next year and then humanity will be doomed.

265 Justin Upton

BJ's little bro only hit .250 with 15 dingers last year for the D-Backs. Ho-hum such pedestrian numbers for an outfielder. Oh yeah, but Justin did that when he was only twenty years old. If you're drafting for a fantasy keeper league in the next couple of weeks, here's a tip: PICK JUSTIN.

Not a bad pack at all. Will the last hobby pack be a good one? I'll post it sometime this week and we'll find out!

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About Me

One man's tireless crusade to promote card collecting as an addictive alternative to more pharmacological pursuits. Remember kids: Do Drugs, Cards have gotten entirely too stupid. Or don't, see if I care when you RUIN YOUR LIFE FOREVER

Dayf the Blogger has a Posse

My original crappy neglected blog what I'm trying to resurrect this year

Note on the Blogroll

If you have a blog, and it ain't on here, LET ME KNOW! There are a lot of good blogs I'm missing out on. I'm also very forgetful and sometimes forget to put it on the list even if I do find a good one. If your blog is about cards or trading or sports in general I'll fit it in, but don't try to sneak your blog about politics or cats or crop rotation in the 14th century on here.